About Us

The Arts Foundation exists to help artists and celebrate the existence of art. A registered Charity (Reg No. 1000001) the Foundation was established in 1991 with an anonymous bequest of £1,000,000. Its remit was specific - to support the individual artist.

The Foundation gives financial assistance to talented, emerging artists at a time in their careers when they have shown commitment to, and reached some professional standing in, their artform. At this critical stage, a period of relative security in order to explore new avenues or consolidate existing work is often crucial.

Awards of £10,000 are made to assist the artists with living and working expenses and are made on the basis of both talent and need to artists living and working in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. In 2013 the Foundation announced that it would be giving awards of £1,000 to each runner up in each of the categories.

Since the inception of its Fellowship Scheme the Trust has awarded over £1,450,000, supporting numerous artists from the fields of Performing and Visual Arts, Crafts, Literature, New Media, Film and Design. Many of these have gone on to become leaders in their art form.

The director of the Arts Foundation is Shelley Warren.

AF Information Pack

The Trustees

The Foundation has a board of Trustees who represent a broad range of art forms and company services.

William Sieghart

Chairman of the Board of Trustees

Jamie Byng

Director of Canongate Books

Hilary Carty

Freelance Arts Consultant

John Cohen

Clintons Legal

Sir Richard Eyre

Writer, Producer & Director

Jonathan Reekie

Director, Aldeburgh Festival

Amanda Levete

Architect

Antony Gormley OBE

Artist

Virginia Hodge

Creative Director, HodgeSellers

Jeremy Love

Financial Consultant

Jan Dalley

Arts Editor, Financial Times